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March 28, 2024, 11:30:05 AM

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What Non-New Films Have You Seen? (2021 Edition)

Started by zomgmouse, January 14, 2021, 11:12:22 AM

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zomgmouse

Vic + Flo Saw a Bear. Another Denis Côté that was on MUBI. I really liked this. Unusual little character piece that turns into something a bit more sinister.

SteveDave

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on January 28, 2021, 05:13:31 AM
MILFs vs. Zombies

One of those movies where the title is 99% of the entertainment. Blame the couple of extremely positive reviews on Letterboxd for fooling me.

How does it stand up alongside "Cockneys Vs Zombies" and "Zombies Vs Strippers"?

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: SteveDave on January 29, 2021, 12:09:25 PM
How does it stand up alongside "Cockneys Vs Zombies" and "Zombies Vs Strippers"?
"Cockneys" is really good, I reckon; not seen "Strippers". "Strippers vs. Werewolves", on the other hand, another British effort, is also excellent (relatively speaking).

Inspector Norse

Aquarius Excellent Brazilian film from Kleber Mendonça Filho, whose Neighbouring Sounds I also really enjoyed last year, about a 60-something widow battling to stay in her home as developers try to kick her out. Just a really good character study, with Sonia Braga excellent as a woman who retains a fierce independence but is also unafraid to rely on family, friends and others. Great soundtrack, great colour and look.

The Chaser Korean action thriller madness as an ex-cop (aren't they always?) pimp tries to find the guy who he believes has abducted and stolen a couple of his girls, who turns out to be a serial killer. Pretty much two hours of people chasing each other, shouting at each other, and occasionally fighting. Pretty grim and gruesome when the action lets up, and there's a strangely amateurish quality to some of it, but it's breathless stuff. Based on a true story apparently, although I imagine a lot of the running around is embellishment.

Ordinary People I hardly ever check the films on Netflix but they seem to have chucked a bunch of foreign festival fare on there recently so I had a look at this Filipino effort about a homeless teenage couple whose baby is abducted. Obvious comparisons with the Dardennes aside, it's a decent film, straying a bit into poverty porn but also quite unsubjective and unjudgmental in the way it portrays its characters: there's no romanticisation of their lifestyles or personalities, or street life and the way different marginalised groups turn on one another. Well-acted and particularly well-directed - you can almost feel the humidity of the Manila streets the characters traipse around.
I think it's the first film I've seen from the nation - never quite plucked up the patience for a Lav Diaz - and I found the setting and language fascinating, with its occasional random streams of English words.

wasp_f15ting

Quote from: Inspector Norse on January 30, 2021, 05:12:16 PM
Aquarius Excellent Brazilian film from Kleber Mendonça Filho, whose Neighbouring Sounds I also really enjoyed last year, about a 60-something widow battling to stay in her home as developers try to kick her out. Just a really good character study, with Sonia Braga excellent as a woman who retains a fierce independence but is also unafraid to rely on family, friends and others. Great soundtrack, great colour and look.

The Chaser Korean action thriller madness as an ex-cop (aren't they always?) pimp tries to find the guy who he believes has abducted and stolen a couple of his girls, who turns out to be a serial killer. Pretty much two hours of people chasing each other, shouting at each other, and occasionally fighting. Pretty grim and gruesome when the action lets up, and there's a strangely amateurish quality to some of it, but it's breathless stuff. Based on a true story apparently, although I imagine a lot of the running around is embellishment.

Ordinary People I hardly ever check the films on Netflix but they seem to have chucked a bunch of foreign festival fare on there recently so I had a look at this Filipino effort about a homeless teenage couple whose baby is abducted. Obvious comparisons with the Dardennes aside, it's a decent film, straying a bit into poverty porn but also quite unsubjective and unjudgmental in the way it portrays its characters: there's no romanticisation of their lifestyles or personalities, or street life and the way different marginalised groups turn on one another. Well-acted and particularly well-directed - you can almost feel the humidity of the Manila streets the characters traipse around.
I think it's the first film I've seen from the nation - never quite plucked up the patience for a Lav Diaz - and I found the setting and language fascinating, with its occasional random streams of English words.

The chaser is indeed bloody amazing. The cinematography was strikingly good.
I hope they re-release this on Blu-ray at some point!

dissolute ocelot

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on January 27, 2021, 12:24:05 PM
I love both Heat and Thief, and if offered the to chance to watch one or the other I'd honestly be happy with either.  But I think Thief is right up there with Manhunter as Mann's masterpieces.
A lot of people seem to think it's cool to downgrade Heat, but every time I flick channels, I'm gripped. An amazing cast: even if Pacino and DeNiro aren't quite at their best, everyone else is. But brilliant direction, great heists and one of the great movie shoot-outs (in the middle), and a good Val Kilmer performance (despite his shocking hair.) It could easily have been an incredibly gripping mini-series.

But Thief: the heist sequence AND tragic Willie Nelson. What more do you want? (It's a shame that James Caan's most memorable film of the last 30 years (since Misery) seems to have been Elf.)

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: dissolute ocelot on January 30, 2021, 11:30:28 PM
(It's a shame that James Caan's most memorable film of the last 30 years (since Misery) seems to have been Elf.)

Regardless of the fact I'm not keen on Elf (I can't stand Will Ferrell), Way Of The Gun is a proper little cracker and Caan is brilliant in it.

peanutbutter

Charlie Varrick
Spotted a person in the background of scene near the end that totally threw off the whole ending on me because I was expecting it to lear to something.
Spoiler alert
Obvs just someone wandered into shot, the idea someone else would be there ignoring them after the plane stuff is ridiculous
[close]


Bunny and the Bull
Not great but not that surprising the director would  go on to make something much better.

dissolute ocelot

Bolt (2008) Surprisingly entertaining Disney CG animation: even though it's basically the same plot as the Toy Stories, there's lots of action and jokes and a massive hamster with tiny human hands.

Dex Sawash

The Prestige (magic film) Nolan with Huge Ackman and C Bale that i got suckered into watching this by one of those "must watch before it leaves at end of month" articles that said it was a scifi. I couldn't really tell who was who due to time jumps and couldn't follow the twists if there were any. Apparently it had Bowie in it.  3.4/10

greenman

Managing to actually make Bowie borning on screen, well done Nolan.

neveragain

Wake In Fright (1971) An English primary school teacher working in an isolated Australian outpost decides to sample the local nightlife and soon wishes he hadn't.
I've fallen in love with this film. Firstly, the atmosphere is perfect. The arid, stultifying wasteland full of decrepit shitheaps where's there nothing to do but get pissed. Following on from that, the way alcohol is treated as a horror-film threat that you can't escape from - and which the locals will get very annoyed if you decline - is wonderful. Every time the night, which turns into a weekend, could stop it is furthered by the friendly siren call of "Have another beer?" ... leading to a very upsetting turn of events, featuring
Spoiler alert
real footage of kangaroo hunting spliced in... to make a point about how awful it is I suppose
[close]
which you may wish to fast forward.
A wonderful slow burn psychological thriller. Donald Pleasance is slimy and sinister as a struck-off doctor.

zomgmouse

Ned. Australian pisstake of the story of Ned Kelly by Abe Forsythe (who is also the titular star). Really stupid and very funny. Highly recommend as an underrated comedy.

Psychomania (aka The Death Wheelers). A curio (and George Sanders' last film; allegedly he committed suicide after seeing a print of it as it signified a career nadir - but it's honestly not as bad as that! I think old George was just in a what we in the biz like to call "bit of a state"). It's decent enough with an interesting philosophical question ("would you die if you knew you could come back to life") at its core.

Calamari Union. Hadn't seen a Kaurismäki film in a while so chose this one. Wonderful as usual, with an especial sense of irreverence.

Tetsuo: The Iron Man. First time seeing this, seems like a major gap to fill. Didn't realise it was so abstract and expressionistic, which was hard to get into at the beginning, but especially towards the end I was mesmerised.

The Good, the Bad, the Weird. Korean comedy action western. Solid entertainment.

About Endlessness. Latest film of Roy Andersson. Feels a little more slight than his previous ones but somehow still just as profound, affecting and absurd.

Infernal Affairs. Another one I should have seen by now. The film that was made into The Departed (which I remember not super loving). This was fine but nothing outstanding. The style seemed kind of muddled and amateurish and the storytelling very superficial. But it was ok overall. Maybe a rewatch of The Departed is due.

samadriel

Quote from: zomgmouse on February 01, 2021, 11:53:13 PM
Ned. Australian pisstake of the story of Ned Kelly by Abe Forsythe (who is also the titular star). Really stupid and very funny. Highly recommend as an underrated comedy.

Just watched this on YT, thanks for the recommendation. Not amazing, but a good chuckle.

rjd2

Watched M on the YT earlier, its a superb piece of work and the lad playing the child-killer is frightening.  Obviously the final scene will stay with me for a long time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0C2Te59egQ&t=68s

That's it above.

dissolute ocelot

Quote from: zomgmouse on February 01, 2021, 11:53:13 PM
Psychomania (aka The Death Wheelers). A curio (and George Sanders' last film; allegedly he committed suicide after seeing a print of it as it signified a career nadir - but it's honestly not as bad as that! I think old George was just in a what we in the biz like to call "bit of a state"). It's decent enough with an interesting philosophical question ("would you die if you knew you could come back to life") at its core.
I've never heard that story about Saunders, but it doesn't sound true. According to Wikipedia he'd been depressed for several years: in 1967 his wife Benita Hume died of cancer and his brother also died; he married again in 1970 but it only lasted for 32 days; and he had a long history of alcoholism before his death in 1972. Still, great suicide note: "Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck."

Psychomania is a very entertaining film, I was expecting something really awful when I saw it, but it's a lot of fun, with a great cast, good folk-rock music, and decent production values.

wasp_f15ting

Quote from: rjd2 on February 02, 2021, 11:08:31 PM
Watched M on the YT earlier, its a superb piece of work and the lad playing the child-killer is frightening.  Obviously the final scene will stay with me for a long time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0C2Te59egQ&t=68s

That's it above.

Brilliant Film, and Lorre acts it so well.

I still say the opening of Testament of Dr Mabuse is one of the best, love how the machinery builds so much tension so quickly;

Full film below.

https://youtu.be/eiLXNS39aZs


Johnboy

Christine (directed by John Carpenter)

Reminded me of how gnarly and analogue the early eighties were.

pigamus

Quote from: dissolute ocelot on February 03, 2021, 10:29:47 AM
I've never heard that story about Saunders, but it doesn't sound true. According to Wikipedia he'd been depressed for several years: in 1967 his wife Benita Hume died of cancer and his brother also died; he married again in 1970 but it only lasted for 32 days; and he had a long history of alcoholism before his death in 1972. Still, great suicide note: "Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck."

Wikipedia speaks, brilliantly, of "a failed sausage investment"

PlanktonSideburns

Quote from: pigamus on February 03, 2021, 07:47:08 PM
Wikipedia speaks, brilliantly, of a "failed sausage investment"

one of my favourate posters here, what happened to him?

zomgmouse

Audition. Very early Miloš Forman, a documentary (though some places say pseudo-documentary) in two parts. Didn't really dig it but it's interesting to see where he came from.

Sudden Manhattan. One of Adrienne Shelly's few films. Absolutely bizarre in the best of ways. Like a "woman in New York having a crisis" film but tonally completely surreal and dreamy. Very funny.

Mobius

Hey guys,

Curious about that movie The Devil All the Time - can anyone tell me if it's worth a watch or a bag of shit.

Thank you.

zomgmouse

Quote from: dissolute ocelot on February 03, 2021, 10:29:47 AM
I've never heard that story about Saunders, but it doesn't sound true. According to Wikipedia he'd been depressed for several years: in 1967 his wife Benita Hume died of cancer and his brother also died; he married again in 1970 but it only lasted for 32 days; and he had a long history of alcoholism before his death in 1972. Still, great suicide note: "Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck."

Psychomania is a very entertaining film, I was expecting something really awful when I saw it, but it's a lot of fun, with a great cast, good folk-rock music, and decent production values.

Interesting, I got my info from the Wikipedia entry for Psychomania, but didn't really peruse further on Sanders' own page. Curiouser and curiouser.

buzby

A Silent Voice (2016)
I mentioned this in the anime thread in Picture Box, but I think it deserves to be mentioned in the film forum. A Kyoto Animation adaptation of the manga by female author Yoshitoki Ōima. Its the story of high school student Shôya Ishida, who in elementary school was the ringleader in his classmates physical and mental torture of Shoko Nishimiya, a hearing impaired girl who joins their class, to the point where she has to transfer to another school. He is held solely responsible for the bullying and is then ostracised by his former friends, which continues into high school. The film begins with Shôya preparing to commit suicide, and in part of getting his affairs in order he attempts to find Shoko to return the notebook that she used to communicate with the rest of the class (which he had snatched off her and thrown in a pond).

The film is an unflinching depiction of bullying and the effects it has on children as they get older, and at a few points is utterly heartbreaking film (I openly cried at least 3 times), but but as a story of atonement, redemption and forgiveness it's up there with any film you could mention, animated or live action. It looks absolutely beautiful too, right up there with Ghibli, and has a fantastic soundtrack.


dissolute ocelot

Quote from: zomgmouse on February 03, 2021, 11:20:11 PM
Audition. Very early Miloš Forman, a documentary (though some places say pseudo-documentary) in two parts. Didn't really dig it but it's interesting to see where he came from.
Disappointed that this is a bit crap. Both of his Czech films that I've seen, Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen's Ball, are excellent. ...Blonde is a very free-wheeling and fun (exactly what you think of with eastern European new wave filmmaking) story about young people in love or looking for sex, that could almost pass for much more recent low-budget indie filmmaking if it wasn't set in communist Czechoslovakia. Firemen's Ball is completely different, a brutal, grotesque, brilliantly worked-out comedy about how awful and petty and greedy people are, which must have annoyed a lot of the Party leaders.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: Mobius on February 04, 2021, 03:43:04 AM
Hey guys,

Curious about that movie The Devil All the Time - can anyone tell me if it's worth a watch or a bag of shit.

Thank you.

It's...alright.  A VERY sedate pace and it feels every one of its 139mins - Mrs Nose (a Marvel fanatic) was bored stiff, I (a Malick fanatic) was quite drawn in.  Acting is solid (R Patz makes for an especially good sleazeball bastard, little Spiderman completely different than you would expect [in a good way]) and it's got that backwoods period American gothic thing going on (some stylistic and tonal similarities to American Gothic are defo there [albeit without the supernatural element, obvs]).  I would say its current IMDB score of 7.1 is a tad generous, but equally some of the very harsh backlash on here was undeserved.

I think it IS worth a watch, but also that it's probs a one-and-done, if not don't-need-to-see-it-again-for-at-least-five-years.

zomgmouse

Quote from: dissolute ocelot on February 04, 2021, 09:53:41 AM
Disappointed that this is a bit crap. Both of his Czech films that I've seen, Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen's Ball, are excellent. ...Blonde is a very free-wheeling and fun (exactly what you think of with eastern European new wave filmmaking) story about young people in love or looking for sex, that could almost pass for much more recent low-budget indie filmmaking if it wasn't set in communist Czechoslovakia. Firemen's Ball is completely different, a brutal, grotesque, brilliantly worked-out comedy about how awful and petty and greedy people are, which must have annoyed a lot of the Party leaders.

Agreed on all counts!

Mobius

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on February 04, 2021, 11:17:11 AM
It's...alright.  A VERY sedate pace and it feels every one of its 139mins - Mrs Nose (a Marvel fanatic) was bored stiff, I (a Malick fanatic) was quite drawn in.  Acting is solid (R Patz makes for an especially good sleazeball bastard, little Spiderman completely different than you would expect [in a good way]) and it's got that backwoods period American gothic thing going on (some stylistic and tonal similarities to American Gothic are defo there [albeit without the supernatural element, obvs]).  I would say its current IMDB score of 7.1 is a tad generous, but equally some of the very harsh backlash on here was undeserved.

I think it IS worth a watch, but also that it's probs a one-and-done, if not don't-need-to-see-it-again-for-at-least-five-years.

Thanks mate. It sounds interesting but yeah the reviews weren't great. I was actually googling for "films, telly or books that resemble the vibe of Blood Meridian" and this came up, so I had no idea whether it was good or if that was a remotely accurate comparison.

But I've just realised that this was a book before a film, so I'm going to check the book out first.

Famous Mortimer

The Bikini Carwash Company 2

I feel a little silly chiming in with this after the movies everyone else is watching. But fuck it.

The ladies from part 1 are back, and...they dance around in their knickers a lot, and topless. Relatively few bikinis for a movie with that title. The extreme horniness of all men for scantily clad ladies with fake boobs saves the day again.

phantom_power

Under the Silver Lake. Batshit crazy sort of detective film from the director of It Follows. If The Big Lebowski is stoner noir then this is prozac noir. Not sure how much of it is resolved, how much really happened and whether there was any real resolution but it had a unique atmosphere and was very compelling. Left me thinking about it a lot afterwards as well, and wanting to explore what the themes and ideas were. Apparently there is a very active subreddit on the film which I will need to check out